BA 5 self evaluation

This term I fell went relatively well. I am happy with my outcome but I had a lot of

confusion at the start of the term whether or not I was still working with my group last term

so because of this I started work on the game idea we had done as a group the previous

term which I don't mind doing, but I do feel that if I had found out at an earlier stage that

we would not be working as a group I do feel I could of done something different and

properly more suiting me than I have done. But saying this I am very happy with how this

term has turned out. I feel my final outcome’s are nice and I feel my story board’s turned

out nice as well. With my finals I am happy with each image although I do feel I should of

spent longer on the 3 final image I did. I do feel it was a little rushed compared to the first

and the second. With my story boards I am very happy with these. The only thing I would

do differently is that I would have spent longer thinking about the camera angles and how

the scenes would play out if they where actually made how they would look.The areas I

like with my story boards is I like the feeling of aging and increase in maturity and loosing

of innocents that you get from the development of each story board. Although in the game

each story board will be brief and quick purely to cover up loading different in game maps I

feel I tried to make them look as nice as possible for the cinematic and cut scenes that we

needed. I am very looking forward to pushing myself next term and am excited to start a

new brief.

With the CS brief this term I did struggle more than normal mainly because I was unsure

on my idea for my essay but I feel that I got around it and have produced a nice essay but

I don’t think it is one of my bests. If i was to do it again I think I would choose too look more

into how online gaming affects society and stay away from the history of online gaming

purely because I felt it became more of a list than an essay and this was because I was

trying to crap 20 years into 2000 words. But once again I am happy with the outcome but I

don't think it is my best.

BA 5 - Project 2

A history of how online gaming has changed over the last 20 years

mainly looking at the online gaming networks PSN and Xbox Live.

When given the question ‘what has been a big change in gaming over the last 20 years?’ I

first thought of the development in technology the improvement of graphics or even the

increase in revenue from game industry companies, but realistically the biggest change

was the introduction and the explosion of the online gaming market and industry. Whether

it is MMORPG or an FPS if you are a gamer in the last 10 years you would of played some

kind of game online. Because of this whole new side to gaming it has allowed such

companies as Microsoft and Sony to create there own online network for their communities

to play on and interact with each other through. Now on these networks it seems like

second nature to jump into an online game of Call of Duty and spend the next few hours

working with your class mates or work colleges or other members of your friend list to

shoot in a virtual world someone on the other side of the world, but when your really think

about it, it is truly amazing. so that is why I this essay I and going to go into the history and

the community that surrounds online gaming.

The history of online gaming is a good place to start my essay, the first available online

games where games similar to the tabletop RPG game Dungeons and Dragons. These

where released in the 1980’s and where called MUD’s or Multi Unser Dungeons, the first

big one of these games was called Nethack. Nethack and other MUD’s from back in the

day are still played today to keep up traditions and in some cases still have a relatively big

fan base. In the late 80’s BBS systems where releases. BBS stands for dial-up Bulletin

Board Systems, these where local machines that where run by the computer enthusiasts

of the time that would be connected to BBS’s with a phone line and a modem. Examples of

BBS games are Tradewars 2002 and Legend of the Red Dragon which where both turn

based game, they allowed the player to take a number of moves per day which could

consist of moving or killing another player to eventually become the best player in BBS. In

1993 the game Doom which for the time was revolutionary for the time mainly because it

was the first popular 3D game and also it was the start of playing online with a LAN

connection which is when you hook up several PC’s with a local network. After the take off

of Doom came a rush of other similar first person shooters which also used a LAN

connection and also a new thing called the DWANGO network. The DWANGO system

offered the same experience as today xbox live matchmaking system. The next big thing in

the online gaming market was the saga channel. Although this didn’t get the publicity it

deserved it was defiantly inspiration to the PSN and Xbox Live, with the player at its peek

being able to play 50 games on it. Although you couldn’t play against other players it had

many services that are now incorporated in PSN and Xbox live. In my opinion the next

stage of the development of online gaming was the stage where online gaming became a

real possibility for the public not just computer enthusiasts, it was brought to the public in

the release of Quake and between 1996-99 the online game community sore and became

more and more popular. Although Quake had major connection issues and lag problems it

is still considered by many the creation of online gaming. Also at the time of the Quake

epidemic was the rise and creation of MMO with the release of the game The Realm which

theoretically the first Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. When the Dreamcast

went online in the year 2000 console online gaming started to become popular. with the

release for Quake 3 area for FPS’s and Phantasy Star Online for MMORPG. Although i

talked briefly about LAN earlier the early 2000’s is when it really got used by more people.

whether it was using the office computers to play after work or all your friends bringing

your computers to one place and linking them up together, a lot of people where playing

on the LAN connection in the early 2000’s. Between 2002 and 2004 was the creation of

Xbox Live which was a online gaming network brought out my Microsoft on their Xbox

console. This was the first time where online gaming reached a massive audience with

games having millions of player playing online, one of these games was Halo the first in

the still popular halo series. In 2004 came World of Warcraft which is still to this day one of

the most popular online games ever. This Changed MMORPG’s made them more popular

and increase the fan base and has lead on to blizzard entertainment creating of style

MMORPG so a World or Warcraft style game is accessible to a even wider audience.

Since 2006 when PSN and Xbox Live where fully up and working and people where

playing online games in there millions came a wacky little side addition to the online

gaming community. This was the YouTube community. The YouTube community consists

of Hundreds of gamer who record footage of there gameplay and compare or review

games and game play. This has created fame for gamers and given the successful few a

celebrity status in the gaming community. Although this isn't online gaming itself it really

shows how the evolution of the online gaming community seeing as how it came from a

few ‘computer nerds’ to gaming ‘celebrities’ it is truly amazing. Now with the soon release

of the Xbox 720 and the PS4 console gaming and online game has only a bright future.

Sony introduced their version of online gaming in their console the Playstation 2. This first

adventure that Sony mad into the online world was very limited with the PS2 only having a

few online features and the fact that to play online you had to have a network adapter

made the online features of the PS2 less appealing to the causal gamer. But in march

2006 Sony announced that there would indeed be a online network for the Playstation 3. It

was originally called the ‘Playstation Network Platform’ they promised a service that was

free easy to connect to and that offered multiplay support. In 2006 they also made

available the option to download games from the PSN market place which was a

completely new concept for the time. In May 2007 Sony brought Playstation Network

Cards which was a electronic form of payment for things on the Playstation Store. This

only originally started off in Japan but by 2009 it was world wide. In 2010 Sony release the

Playstation Plus which was a online subscription which allows the user to get discount

ands and earn rewards along with extras. Since then playstation have been developing

their new console the Playstation 4 which will i’m sure bring on a whole new way of looking

at online gaming seeing as how rapidly technology has been developing over recent

years.

Online gaming has really been built up to what it is today by (in my opinion) by Microsoft

and their Xbox Live. It was first available in November 2002 on the Xbox but it was rereleased

in 2005 with the launch of the Xbox 360. This offered you a wider choice of

services available than the pervious version. The service in 2007 was put onto a Windows

platform. This allowed the user to sign into his Xbox Live account on a PC, handheld

devices, mobile phone and just about everything that has an internet connection, this was

called Live anywhere. There are many comparisons made between PSN and Xbox live

because they are very similar the main difference is that you have to may a monthly fee

with Xbox Live to access Xbox Gold. The main reason Xbox Have done this is to provide a

better service available than they could have for running a ‘free’ network. Others do argue

it is exactly the same as PSN though. The Xbox Live online service originally provided the

user to just play online with others around the world. But it quickly developed into being

able to play online with your friends and you could store a friend list and talk to your friends

online via a microphone. This was a huge success and created a kind of social side to

gaming which hasn't been felt since the LAN days but it defiantly increase the amount of

people playing online. since then Xbox Live has been adding more and more features to

make it the ‘ultimate’ device. Nowadays you can watch TV, films, Listen to music and even

surf the internet with Xbox Gold. They have really nailed their audiences interest and what

they would like to have on their Xbox 360 which i think is the main reason they have

approximately in march 2010 they had 23 million member to Xbox Gold and that figure has

defiantly increased since then. Like PSN, Xbox Live has only a bright future with the

release of the Xbox 720 I’m sure they will be a whole new look on online gaming which

has all modern day gamers excited about tis release.

In summary the evolution of online gaming has been a rapid one. This is because of the

huge increase in technology over the last 20 years, if it wasn't for this the online gaming

evolution problerly wouldn't of happened so fast. But in my opinion it was for the best,

online gaming has become a past time for millions and the technology is amazing seeing

how u can buy games online, rent films from your sitting room and store more music than

a iPod all on the same device on the same network. Obviously there is the argument that

it has created a lazy generation and that it has damaged society but like anything you cant

abuse it but it has made in a way gaming more sociable and enjoyable. In my opinion I feel

online gaming is great and the evolution is an amazing one. I am very excited to see what

the future has to hold and I’m sure we will see whole new ways of playing games online

and I am excited to see what happens.

BA 5 - Project 1

Proposal: I am going to do 2D paintings, drawings and detailed story boards which

illustrates a cut scene between which will take place when leaving the earths atmosphere

in my groups game Peng from unit 4 along side this I am going to do 2 story boards for the

opening cinematic and the ending cinematic.

Outline: Because my group from unit 4 made a prototype for our game Peng a lot of the

games assets and animations and models are already done, I am planning on taking a 2D

approach to this brief my doing pieces of illustrated descriptive writing to explain a couple

of things our game still needs.

The assets that are needed for our game Peng is a opening cinematic at the beginning of

the game showing the beginning of the bird Peng’s life and also a similar cinematic at the

end of the game showing the final end of Peng. Another asset which is needed is a cut

scene when the bird leaves the wolds atmosphere and enters the solar system which is

needed for a smooth transition between the two different in game ‘worlds’. How I would

illustrate this which a collection of story boards and digital paintings showing the different

scenes of the cut scene along side this will be writing describing how it will all work.

Scene 1 - Life begins

Scene 1 is all about the start of Peng’s life. The main thing I wanted to capture in this
cinematic is the venerability of Peng, I wanted to capture the youth and innocents and
unknowing in him.
To do this I went about the approach that Peng comes from a pile of leaves which is a
concept we originally had when making the game demo in unit 4. The reason for this is
because of what Peng is, Peng is a bird of nature he grows grass is made of earth and
rock and eventually become planet size. So Peng must come from an organic source.
How the cinematic would work is it would start with the camera focused on a pile of leave.
then the camera would zoom in close to the pile of leave as it does this rustling and
movement happens slowly exposing Peng’s head. Peng shakes his head a few times and
leaves fall off. As this in happening the camera is slowly zooming out again while the
camera zooms out peng shakes all the leaves off him and eventually falling out the pile of
leaves. then the camera stays zoomed out focused on Peng. Peng then walks forward
gaining his balance until he is about a meter from the pile of leaves then he stops. At this
piont the camera pans around him in a 180 turntable effect until the camera is behind
Peng. At this point the sun ises over the water and the cinematic ends and the player
takes over.

Scene 2 - A New World

Scene 2 is going to be a cut scene to hide the loading of levels between the earth in game
world and the space in game world. To keep the relaxed open feeling game.
With scene 2 I knew going into it that it was going to be a brief scene purely because we
didn't want to take much gameplay away from the player. So the only main thing i wanted
to happen in it was for Peng to fly up and him burn through the atmosphere into space
loosing all his grass and dirt and leave him just as stone (which is level 6 in the forms).
The cut scene will start from the players behind Peng prospective. Peng starts to fly up
starting to leave the earth, he is building up speed as this is happening the camera starts
to zoom into Peng’s face which is now burning up as the atmosphere and the speed start
tearing off his dirt and glass and his body just leaving the stone. As the burning gets too its
most intense the camera suddenly zooms out as Peng breaks through the atmosphere
and slowly levels out now feeling as if he is going really slowly. Then Peng starts to move
forward into the sun as he sees it glowing around the planet earth. This is the end of the
cut scene and the player carries on from here.

Scene 3 - The End

Scene 3 is the final scene, the end of the game. The end of the game has to be epic,
seeing as you are now at this point a planet size epic fire version of Peng. Yet it has to be
fitting because this is also when Peng dies.
I went with the idea that Peng would meet the Sun as a old friend and he will stand in owe
of the sun then aggressively fly into it to meet his death. So in this scene I need to capture
the relationship with the sun and Peng and then Peng’s determination at of taking his own
life by flying into the Sun.
How this final cinematic would go is the camera would be behind Peng looking onto the
sun, showing Peng in all its glory as a silhouette in front of the epic Sun. This scene would
stay for a couple of second then it would cut to peng flying along the Sun. Then he starts
to descend into the Sun and starts to burn up and break down because of the shear force
of the fire based planet. This carries on until Peng is completely destroyed and nothing
remains, then there is a black out and the scene is just black and at this point an image of
the sun appears with the quote “Small understanding is no match for great understanding;
small knowledge cannot understand what great knowledge knows.” - Tao Te Cheng
appears in front of the sun.